A taste of India

India was our second to last stop in Asia and we spent five days there. It was the hottest I’ve ever been. We’d had a kind offer to stay in an apartment in Delhi that belonged to a friend of my mum’s. They had a lodger called Valerie who we loved spending time with and we met Sanjay, who worked for mum’s friend and looked after us. Valerie worked in the day but as soon as she was home we begged her to play card games. She taught us a cool new game which we loved and we introduced her to the film Pitch Perfect.

Whilst in Delhi we had a really friendly driver called Param Jeet, who took us everywhere we needed to go. He was Sikh and he wanted to show us the largest Sikh temple in Delhi. We found out they feed thousands of people each day all funded from donations; it didn’t matter if you were Sikh or not, anyone could go and eat.

Before we arrived, Mum’s friend had warned us that their dog wasn’t very good with small children. We were careful and at first Jasper was fine and really calm.

After a while Willow – being Willow – forgot our warnings and went up to him and started rubbing his cheeks together with her face very close to his. He didn’t like it and scratched her lip. Because lips bleed a lot, it was bleeding for quite a while and Willow was quite shocked. When it finally stopped, Mum and Dad decided that it wasn’t too bad and that nobody should worry and she shouldn’t go to hospital. Valerie and Sanjay thought that she should go but we didn’t . We’d already had rabies shots and the dog had too, so we were certain that it would be fine. Overnight mum worried and thought we should have taken her so the next day, we went to the hospital just to double check. We were told that she should’ve been brought in straight away as she need some injections but luckily, everything was fine after that.

Because we were in Delhi we went to see the Taj Mahal which is just a few hours drive away. The whole place is beautiful but especially the building and the gardens.

The palace is the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen. Our guide showed us lots of cool tricks like some walls look symmetrical until you get up close and they don’t look symmetrical at all. He also told us that he had toured around the King and Queen of Malaysia, Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada and many other royal families. He had also been on the ‘ An Idiot Abroad’ TV show so we watched the episode and saw him.

After going to the Taj Mahal, we went on a rickshaw tour around the spice market with ‘Akbar the Rickshaw man’. He seemed to be like the king of the rickshaws and knew everyone. A rickshaw’s front part has a bicycle and back part has two seats with a cover where we sat. When we went past some of the most intense spices, we were sneezing and coughing and I couldn’t stop!! We were all sneezing for about 10 minutes non-stop and it was quite embarrassing because none of the locals were sneezing or coughing.

We also went to Gandhi’s last house which is now a museum. His story is so beautiful and its such a shame how it ended. We saw his bedroom and exactly where he was standing when he got shot.

The next day, in complete contrast to the Taj Mahal, we went to a charity that is set up in the slums where children can go in the day instead of begging on the street. Mum is friends with the founder of the Charity, Raashi. The children get some basic education, they also learn some English and how to count. We met all of the kids and they were all really nice and had very good English. It made me appreciate my life so much more to see how other people were living. Unfortunately, not all of the kids can have this experience because their parents want them to go out and earn some money but that is what the charity is trying to stop.

I loved our time in India becuase it was so different and interesting. Wherever we went we saw cows walking in the road and thousands of people. It is also home to one of my favourite meals: Butter Chicken Curry. I ate it nearly every day I was there and loved it. I’d definitely go back to India but maybe at a time of year when it isn’t 40 degrees!